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Best Sports Talk Radio Hosts

Alright its off to the first round. Our number one seed Dan Patrick meets up against 16th seed Todd Wright of Sporting News Radio.

Dan Patrick- Daniel Patrick Pugh (born May 15, 1957), better known as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster from Mason, Ohio who currently works for CNN’s Sports Illustrated. He attended the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Bill Pugh, is a longtime sports radio executive, and is currently the head of programming at Sporting News Radio. Patrick was an anchor on ESPN’s SportsCenter (1989-2006). He also hosted The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio from September 13, 1999 to August 17, 2007. Starting on March 19, 2006, until the final game of the NBA Finals, he became the host of ABC’s then-titled NBA Nation, a pregame show for the network’s NBA telecasts. Here is more about Dan from Wikipedia. Dan Patrick website.

Todd Wright- Name any major sporting event and Todd Wright has covered it. Name any famous stadium or arena and Todd Wright has visited it. Name any sports topic and Todd Wright has an opinion on it. For over a decade and a half, Todd has made sports both his personal and professional way of life. From his first on-air position as a play-by-play voice of the Hurricanes as a student at the University of Miami to his most recent work anchoring tournament coverage on the PGA Tour Network, Todd has pretty much done it all. And what he hasn’t, he aspires to do next. Get Todd’s complete bio.

Moving along in the SMJ Sports Radio Madness tournament we have ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd up against the lowest rated entry in our field, Arnie Spanier of Sporting News Radio

Colin Cowherd- Colin Cowherd joined ESPN Radio March 29, 2004 with the debut of The Herd, which airs 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET weekdays. A West coast-only hour airs 9-10 a.m. ET (6-7 a.m. PT). The Herd features topical commentary on the day’s most important sports news, perspective on the top stories, interviews with the biggest newsmakers, and entertaining daily segments including “Spanning the Globe” and “Rants of the Day.” More about Colin here. And here.

Arnie Spanier- Talk about a career that has gone full circle. Spanier joined Sporting News Radio after beginning his career with the very same company (as the Sports Entertainment Network). After his debut year on SEN in Las Vegas, Arnie ventured south across the desert to Phoenix, honing his skill at the local level. After two years in PM drive, he was lured back to the network side with One-on-One Sports. Here’s more on Arnie.

Probably our most intriguing showdown of the opening round of the SMJ Sports Radio Madness competition…our lone local sports talk show, Mike & The Mad Dog from WFAN going up against ESPN Radio’s DOug Gottlieb.

Mike & The Mad Dog– Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo bring their feisty, hard-hitting brand of sports talk to WFAN weekday afternoons from 1:00 to 6:30 PM. The Mike and the Mad Dog show debuted on the FAN in September of 1989 creating the two man talk team that is now the industry standard. Their show has been at or near the top of the ratings book ever since. Get more on Mike here. Get more on Mad Dog here.

Doug Gottlieb- Doug Gottlieb is host of ESPN Radio’s The Pulse, which debuted in December 2006 and is heard nationally 7-10 p.m. ET M-F. Gottlieb joined ESPN in September 2003 as co-host of ESPN Radio’s GameNight, which is carried by more than 300 affiliates nationwide Monday-Friday from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. ET (or starting at 7:30 p.m. following the 30-minute radio-version of ESPN’s popular Pardon the Interruption on some stations). Get Doug’s full bio here.

As our SMJ Sports Radio Madness competition continues we have our number two seed, Jim Rome, going up against Freddie Coleman of ESPN Radio.

Jim Rome- Perhaps the most respected voice in the world of sports broadcasting, Jim Rome is the leading opinion-maker of his generation. As host of the nation’s premiere sports radio talk show, Rome is known for his aggressive, informed, rapid-fire dialogue. Jim has established himself as the top choice of athletes and fans when it is time to know what is going on beyond the scoreboard. Get more about Jim Rome here.

Freddie Coleman- Freddie D. Coleman joined ESPN on June 26, 2004 as a co-host of GameNight, which is carried by more than 300 affiliates nationwide nightly from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. ET (or starting at 7:30 p.m. following the 30-minute radio-version of ESPN’s popular Pardon the Interruption on some stations). Coleman’s co-hosting chores are Friday through Monday. Find out more about Freddie here.

Our final match-up in the first round of the SMJ Sports Radio Madness tournament is a battle of ESPN Radio colleagues, Mike & Mike in the Morning and Orestes Destrade & John Seibel.

Mike & Mike in the Morning– Mike Greenberg, who joined ESPN in September 1996 as an anchor for ESPNEWS which launched in November of that year, is heard on ESPN Radio each weekday morning and usually seen on ESPN each weekday evening on SportsCenter. Get more on Greenberg here.

Mike Golic is co-host of ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning show (6-10 a.m. ET), which premiered October 12, 1998 and is carried by more than 310 affiliates nationwide. He also serves as an analyst for ESPN and ESPN2’s NFL studio programming, as well as for the networks’ college football game coverage. Find out more about Golic here. Get even more about the show here.

Orestes Destrade/John Seibel- Orestes Destrade joined ESPN in August 2005 and currently serves as a season-long contributor to Baseball Tonight. Destrade, born in Santiago, Cuba, and fluent in three languages (English, Spanish and Japanese), will also serve as an analyst during ESPN’s coverage of the Little League World Series and MLB broadcasts on ESPN Radio.

John Seibel joined ESPN in October 2000 as an anchor for ESPNEWS, and has since become a major talk-show host for ESPN Radio. For ESPN Radio, Seibel co-hosted GameNight (7 p.m.-1 a.m.) from April 2004 through January 2007 when he became host of SportsBash (4-7 p.m. M-F). He has also served as host for ESPN Radio’s NFL Huddle (Sundays in-season) NFL on ESPN Radio (Sundays, in-season) and The Baseball Show (Sundays in-season). More on Destrade here. More on Seibel here.